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excape board issues

i put a excape board in my hive last this monday and i came in today to take off the honey super, but it didnt seem to have any less bees in the box then i did a week ago. does anybody have any ideas about how to make it work?

24-48 hours should be plenty of time to empty 2 or 3 supers. In addition to checking for brood/queen up and bee tight seals, check that your escapes are clear of hive debris/dead bees. Lifting/replacing supers to insert an escape board means you're going to squash some bees and breaking comb between boxes leaves the bees with a cleanup job which can clog escapes as they try to carry debris out.

cold night

I put mine on yesterday afternoon, this morning there were two bees in the super itself, but the center hole that leads down to the triangle maze and lower supers was full of bees. They stayed put while I carried off the super.
It was into the forties here last night, I think the cold helps get them moving down .

SO , after I took off the super, I then came back for the excluder. I briefly considered lighting the smoker, but figured the cold temp and early hour would keep them put while I swapped the excluder and inner/outer covers. Ha Ha Ha. As soon as I took the excluder off I was bombed by forty or fifty bees, while the hive began to boil over like a pot of pasta. I had those covers and a heavy rock back in place in seconds, and had a leisurely walk back to the house, escorted by the girls part of the way.

I am so glad I decided to wear the jacket and veil. I don't always use it and don't always need it, but I like the utter calm it inspires when something goes wrong.

Escape boards

Hi, we have used the Quebec escape boards that we built ourselves from plan sources here on the board. The first, a single Quebec (that is where you have only one triangle) was disappointing. We added another triangle outside of the first, one that makes a small 3/8" channel to three escape points and that works good. The triangles are also covered with #8 wire mesh. Of course we have still a few (about three or four hangers-on) after 24 hours but they can be blown out or removed with the little brush.
Take care and have fun.

I recently had a similar experience, and I have had wonderful success with the escape board in the past.

I have a queenless hive. Has not had any brood, drone or otherwise, for over a month. I was trying to get the bees out of the super so I only had to carry the one deep to do a combine. Bees refused to come out of the shallow super. I ended up moving the whole shebang. Nights have not been particularly cold, though - mid 50s.

It's the same escape I used in July, and it worked great. There's no brood (I checked). It's installed correctly. There were no gaps/no robbing. It was just bees doing what bees do best... not following human rules!

Last edited by Hobie; 09-29-2008 at 05:48 AM.

The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams. -Henry David Thoreau

What I do most times is put a empty super under the escape board or better yet is the spacer used for a baggie feeder plus a baggie with suger water. Gives them space to gather. Make sure there is no opening above, yellow jackets and robbers will empty a super in a day.